It’s all getting closer. For those of you wishing for more posts about football — well, there just hasn’t been much news or noise. The ‘Burgh media seems to have relcoated in its entirety to Latrobe for the Steelers. So, while UConn starts practice tomorrow. UVa opens tomorrow evening (and Liberty with Pitt transfer Rashad Jennings opens today) as well.

Pitt’s training camp begins on Tuesday, August 8. There will be a Pitt media day on Monday. NCAA rules prescribe the number of practices you can have, so it isn’t like Pitt is not going to get as many practices by starting a few days later.

The Pitt FanFest will be Thursday, August 24 at Heinz Field in the evening. An open practice and festivities. I’ve never been to FanFest, but this year the wife is granting me permission I will be going.

So, former Pitt AD, Steve Pederson has to find a new head coach for Nebraska basketball. The question, naturally gets raised, as to whether a traditional football school can even become an occasional top-25 team. It seems like a stupid question. The answer is yes, assuming the commitment is realy there, resources are spent and the right coach is hired. Pitt is cited as an example as to a school that has done it.

When Pittsburgh — under the leadership of Pederson, it’s worth noting — fired Ralph Willard prior to the 1999-2000 season it had gone six years without an NCAA Tournament appearance. Panthers football legend Dan Marino sneezing was bigger news in the area than anything that happened inside or outside a 3-point line.

Enter Ben Howland/Jamie Dixon.

Howland and Dixon (otherwise known as coach and assistant) came to Pitt together, and almost immediately turned things around. The second year featured a winning record. And the third year, 2001-02, marked the Panthers’ first trip to the Sweet 16 in nearly 20 years. Howland departed for UCLA after the ’02-03 season, and Pitt wisely allowed Dixon to step in. All he’s done is go 76-22 the past three seasons while setting the stage for what may be a Final Four campaign this year.

In an interview with UCLA Coach Ben Howland, there is naturally nothing but support and belief that Pederson will hire the right guy. There is a short hand revisionism though, about the hiring of Jamie Dixon to replace Howland at Pitt.

“Kerry does a great job (but) I think Steve is going to first look at all head coaches. When you’re in a major conference, I would say almost always that’s the case,” said Howland, who had an assistant, Jamie Dixon, succeed him at Pitt. “Jamie was really unique, and I recommended him.”

That of course ignores the fact that Pitt pursued and offered the job to Skip Prosser of Wake Forest. Only after Prosser finally turned the gig down did Dixon get the offer. So the situation wasn’t quite that unique.

Then there’s the new incursion by Pitt into the DC area for recruiting. Luke Winn on his new CBB blog for SI.com noticed the article from Monday.

Today, the focus is much narrower: the changing dynamics of the Washington D.C. talent market.

…

A nice story in Tuesday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette describes how coach Jamie Dixon is banking on newly hired director of basketball operations David Cox to help make Pitt a player in D.C. recruiting. Cox, to put it lightly, is “hooked up” inside the Beltway after serving as an assistant with the Assault for seven years. Coincidentally, with Cox in the fold in July, the Panthers landed Darnell Dodson, a 6-foot-6, three-star wing player for the Assault. They’re also now in the hunt for Vaughn and McClain and are said to be considered by Beasley as a possible back-up option should he change his mind about K-State. Cox also gives Dixon more pull in his battle against Huggins for Herb Pope, an ultra-talented power forward from Alquippa, Pa., who formerly played for the Assault.

Oh — and Chris Wright, the lone, five-star D.C. prospect who hasn’t made his college decision? He doesn’t play for the Assault, but that doesn’t mean he’s unfamiliar with Cox. “Actually,” Wright told Scout.com this summer, “[Cox] was the assistant principal at my school [St. John’s College High]. We had a very good relationship before he went to the University of Pittsburgh.”

Wright has two Big East schools on his short list: Georgetown … and Pittsburgh. Is anyone surprised?

The only correction is that Dodson credited his verbal to Mike Rice, not Cox. Though, it seems not to be believed.

Should also note that PF Julian Vaughn gave a verbal to Florida State yesterday.

A little while back, in one of the blogpoll roundtables I averred that Oklahoma should be considered quite overrated. Now, I feel more confident in that prediction with this news.

Oklahoma starting quarterback Rhett Bomar will not play for the Sooners this season following an investigation by the team, according to a television report.

Oklahoma confirmed that two players had been dismissed by the team but did not identify them. The school said in a statement that the players violated NCAA rules by working at a private business and taking “payment over an extended period of time in excess of time actually worked.”

Oklahoma City television station KWTV reported that Bomar, who set an Oklahoma freshman record with 2,018 passing yards after taking over as the Sooners’ starter in the second game last season, was one of the two players who had been permanently dismissed.

“We spend a considerable amount of time addressing our players regarding their personal conduct and the NCAA rules,” head coach Bob Stoops said in a statement. “They know exactly what we expect from them. Ultimately, they have to make right decisions. The same holds true for our boosters. When they do not, the consequences are serious, and we will not tolerate this behavior.

“Our team and university actions are necessary because of the intentional participation and knowledge of the student athletes in these violations,” Stoops said.

Gee, who’d a thunk that Oklahoma would display higher standards than Ohio State in the new century?

The Fulmer Cup — especially with the recent one-man, taser fueled surge from San Jose St. to throw the contest into complete disarray — as noted by MountainLair is lacking real presence from the Big East.

That’s not fair. The Bulls are trying to show they are a player in the realm of arrests and criminal activity. It’s just that the damn academics keep them from being part of the team. Case in point:

I caught the arrest late enough Monday night that I wasn’t able to get a lot of details beyond the basic charges. In short, police say Stirrups stole digital cameras worth about $300 each and other small items from cars parked in the parking lot near Tampa International Airport where he and his mother worked.

When I called Pearl River Community College, where Stirrups was set to play this fall after failing to qualify academically at USF, coach Tim Hatten was blunt: This was not the kind of activity he’d tolerate in his program, not the kind of character he wanted to bring to Mississippi. Unless the charges go away very quickly, Stirrups has no place on his team.

The easy reaction is that it’s slightly hypocritical that one day after he takes Carlton Hill off USF’s hands, knowing he’s had a recent arrest for possession of marijuana, Hatten says he wants no part of Stirrups and his error in judgment. With Stirrups though, the issue is greater, because it attacks a coach’s ability to trust the young man. If he’s willing to steal from customers of a business that employs both himself and his own mother, what conscience would stop him from stealing from a teammate’s locker?

What’s truly mindless in all of this, both funny and sad at the same time, is how Stirrups got caught: With both cameras, police say he took a few pictures of himself and friends before pawning them, never deleting the images. So when police were able to recover the cameras, they saw the post-theft pics and showed them around at the parking lot office. Of course, they could identify him; he worked there. It’s the kind of silliness you normally laugh at while reading Carl Hiassen novels.

His six felony counts are remarkably similar to another USF signee who failed to qualify academically and wound up at Pearl River three years ago, a linebacker named Gene Coleman.

[Emphasis added.]

They are trying. That’s important. They just need to get that element academically qualified first. Right now, they aren’t quite there yet.

Last night, while over some Commodore Perry IPA at the Grovewood Tavern — which conveniently enough offers Wi-Fi — Adam helped me move the archives over to the new site. They will remain as “uncategorized” because if you think I’m going to go back and log some 3000+ posts into the right groupings… There’s still some things to work out, like making the “next page” icon at the bottom of the site visible to see older posts in the month. It’s there, but blends in the background.

We also took a look at the coding for the layout to see why some people were having some troubles with overlaps. The conclusion: it’s your fault. It was fine on our computers and on others of some people I called and checked. You may need to check your screen resolution and sharpen it more.

On the subject of commenting, here’s the thing. Everything is being caught when the e-mail field isn’t filled in. You don’t even need to use a real e-mail address. Pitt@pitt.com would be fine. The comment spam catchers just need to know you are a real person and not some spambot. I’m trying to find the right balance between giving everyone their comfort level for privacy/anonymity versus the beasts of comment spam and having to moderate and/or review all comments.

I suppose you have say things like this, but it still makes me wince.

“We get to find out what kind of a team we are and what kind of men we are after dealing with, basically, a season that was from hell,” Palko said two weeks ago at the Big East Football Kickoff in Newport, R.I., where media members picked Pitt to finish third among the conference’s eight teams in 2006. “It was horrible. Everybody knows that.

“I think last season will be able to teach us a lot. I guess that’s really the only thing you can take out of it. You learn your lessons.”

Palko believes the way the Panthers respond to adversity this season will determine whether they succeed or fail, win or lose.

“That is going to dictate how far we go,” said Palko, who wondered how his team will

respond the first time it has a three-and-out series or the first time he throws an interception that the opposition returns for a touchdown.

“How do you deal with it and how does your team deal with it? We’ll find out when that adversity hits. You can deal with adversity through summer workouts and preseason practice, but that isn’t the real test. The real test is when the lights come on.

“If you aren’t a man, you won’t be able to handle all of the ups and downs that you face.”

Palko attributes the Panthers’ poor performance in 2005 to their inability to overcome adversity rather than their new coach and his new schemes.

“When we were playing well, we were OK; when we weren’t, we felt sorry for ourselves,” said Palko, who completed 193-of-341 passes for 2,392 yards with 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 2005 compared to 230-of-409 passes for 3,067 yards with 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 2004.

See, I would have attributed it to just playing badly. Bad line play on the offense that produced no holes for the running game and no time to throw. The defense had equally bad line play that gave a QB all day to throw and couldn’t stop anyone who ran.

ESPN.com’s “Summer Session” finally gets to the Big East. Judging by the FanPoll numbers, I’d say the Warriors, Gold, Golden Eagles have been stuffing the ballot box.

The good news, to me, in the write-ups is that while Pitt is clearly the favorite, the focus is on Georgetown as the big challenger and Marquette as being expected to make a run.

In the “Hot” categories, the expectations are that Jeff Green of G-town or Aaron Gray will be the preseason favorite to win Player of the Year. The Pete was also considered one of the toughest place to play in the Big East.

The overall vibe about Pitt’s playpen is that it has become a party house for everyone but the opposing team. Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said it has become one of the toughest places to play, even though the Huskies have had success there.

“It’s deceptive,” said one Big East coach. “It’s nice, but nasty. They call it a zoo, and based on what some have said to me, that would an appropriate place to take residence.”

The reason why Pitt is considered the team to beat in the Big East is they have the best combination of talent, experience and a legit NBA-caliber big man.

The Panthers lose the heart of their team in lead guard Carl Krauser, but bring back everyone else of note. The 7-foot Gray will anchor the middle. He has worked on extending his game with a 15-foot shot but he’ll still be hunkered down in the post as much as possible.

As Notre Dame’s Mike Brey said, few players in the Big East can change the game like Gray.

Besides Gray, forwards Sam Young and Levon Kendall are two of the more underrated at their positions. The feeling among most in the league is that Young is on the verge of being a star and Kendall is one of the top glue guys in the league. He does a little bit of everything.

Guards Ronald Ramon, Levance Fields, Keith Benjamin and Antonio Graves are all versatile, tough and can get to the rim to finish.

“We’re going to be a real deep team. We’ve got a lot of experience and we’re going to have a lot of fun,” Gray said. “All of these guys love being in the gym.”

As for Sam Young, there is an expectation that he will emerge this season.

Pitt: The consensus in the league is that Sam Young is ready to make a name for himself. He’ll have plenty of touches to play off of Aaron Gray inside. Young has a knack for finding his way to the hoop. He’s not a Chevy Troutman, but he has a shot to be another one in the growing line of tough, productive, undersized power players. Young averaged 7.9 points and 4.4 rebounds as a freshman. He’s 6-6 and plays a few inches taller.

And Mike Cook never even gets mentioned, as probably the best transfer into the conference this season. Astounding. Ed Nelson comes to UConn to be a role player and gets plenty of attention. Dave Padgett can’t stay healthy for L-ville and everyone is still waiting but talking.

Track and Field or Cycling. Take your pick as to which has more doping going on in it. My bet is on Track and Field. They are much more advanced in what to use. Cyclists lacks sophistication and much creativity.

So, naturally if there is a non-steroid story regarding Track, it must be about the past. Great story about the 1936 Olympic Gold Medlist in the 800 meter — John Woodruff.

On Aug. 4, 1936, John Woodruff won one of the most memorable races in Olympic history. In the 800-meter final in Berlin, he was boxed in by other runners at 300 meters and forced to stop in his tracks. He let everyone else go by, then caught and passed them all.

It was another gold medal for the United States’ so-called Black Auxiliaries — the Nazis’ term for the black athletes — and another thorn in the side of Adolf Hitler, who greeted every white winner, but none of the blacks.

“It didn’t bother me,” Woodruff said in a telephone interview Friday. “After the race, Marty Glickman, who was a teammate, told me how good a job I did. Two other teammates told me that, too. The coaches said nothing.”

…

Woodruff was a 21-year-old college freshman, an unsophisticated and, at 6 feet 3 inches, an ungainly runner. But he was a fast thinker, and he made a quick decision.

“I didn’t panic,” he said. “I just figured if I had only one opportunity to win, this was it. I’ve heard people say that I slowed down or almost stopped. I didn’t almost stop. I stopped, and everyone else ran around me.”

Then, with his stride of almost 10 feet, Woodruff ran around everyone else. He took the lead, lost it on the backstretch, but regained it on the final turn and won the gold medal.

Did I mention he’s a Pitt grad? Woodruff served in both WWII and the Korean War. He became career Army and retired as a Lt. Colonel.

He has given some of his trophies and medals to Pitt. Unfortunately, his health doesn’t allow him to travel, so he won’t be able to come to Pittsburgh this fall. Pitt wanted to honor him and his accomplishments at halftime of a game this season.

By keeping comments open, I am out of necessity, using some strong comment-spam blockers. They are working very, very well. Most comments so far are being caught. I am reviewing and letting actual comments through. That’s why some of you haven’t seen your comments posted yet.

An article today about Coach Jamie Dixon hiring Dave Cox as Director of Basketball Operations and what it means for Pitt’s recruiting strategy.

When Pitt men’s coach Jamie Dixon set out to hire his new director of basketball operations, he wanted to get someone with a strong administrative background first and foremost. But high on his list of desires was to get a well-connected AAU coach who could help make recruiting inroads into the Baltimore-Washington corridor.

In David Cox, Dixon found what he was looking for. As the director of basketball operations at Pitt, Cox is allowed to recruit only in Pittsburgh and nearby communities, but that hasn’t stopped this former AAU coach from Washington from making his presence felt in the recruiting wars for the Panthers.

…

That doesn’t mean Pitt will abandon New York, but it does signal a significant change for the program. Pitt rebuilt the program around players such as Carl Krauser, Chris Taft and current players Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin. Half of the players on this year’s roster hail from the New York/New Jersey area.

Now it seems Dixon is going in another direction — south on Interstate 95.

Of course, that somewhat ignores the hiring of Mike Rice that was also a bit of diversifying into areas Pitt hadn’t been recruiting as hard — Philly and the rest of Jersey beyond the NYC Metro. This is just logical and smart. There’s a risk in relying on one geographic area too strongly for recruits. Even when it is somewhere as talent-rich as NYC.

Beasley and Wright represent the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the deep pool of players in the Washington area. The Baltimore-Washington area is producing more and more of the top players in the country every year. For the time being, it has surpassed New York as the hotbed for recruiting. Usually the first stop on recruiting trips for coaches, New York has fallen on hard times. It does not have one player among the top 70 in the ’07 class. Contrast that to the Washington-Baltimore area, which currently has five of the top 25 players in the class.

“Areas go through cycles, some more than others,” Dixon said. “There definitely are a lot of players to come out of the D.C. area, especially the last few years.”

Additionally, it can not be ignored how much tougher it will be to recruit in the NYC area. Pitt didn’t just lose Associate Head Coach Barry Rohrssen. They will now have to compete against him in the area. Rutgers and Seton Hall made serious upgrades with their recruiting in the area with the head coach hirings of Dave Hill and Bobby Gonzalez, respectively. Rick Pitino still recruits the area hard. St. John’s continues to rebuild. Then there are always Syracuse and UConn.

Pitt still has a strong presence with Orlando Antigua and his relation to the city, players and coaches there, but it is better to really start expanding the recruiting geographically as Pitt has raised its profile.

To that end, Pitt is interested in a kid who will be attending Hargrave Military Academy after initially signing a LOI with Temple.

We said it at the Peach Jam and we’ll it again. Mike Scott will be a name that everyone is talking about once the prep school season gets rolling. Heck, his name might be a popular one before that. The class of 2006 Temple signee is headed to Hargrave Military in the fall and the way he has played in July has made him a guy that the high-majors want to have on their team.

Scott said he is hearing from Pitt, Oklahoma, Wake Forest, St. Joe’s, Maryland and Virginia Tech and waiting for his release from the Atlantic 10 program.

Scott is from Virginia. I’m not sure if Rice or Cox has any connection to him (whether Rice was aware or recruited him at all while at St. Joe’s).

I’m just glad Pitt is looking to other places for recruiting.

It is now up. Posting can be found at

PittBlather.com

At long last it is up. Plenty of changes still afoot. There are still some things to be worked out. The archives need to be transferred. I need to update some of the feed sites. I’m sure other things will pop up, and I have some vague notions of some other things I’d like to add to this new place.

First, some acknowledgments. The new design, logo and nearly all the work done is courtesy of my friend Adam Harvey. He does great work, despite being a Domer. If you need some site design, get in touch with him. He took some of my poorly thought out ideas and actually made them look good.

Next, everyone who contributed to make this possible. I wouldn’t have this spiffy new site, my own domain, and 2 years worth of server space on DreamHost (not to mention the nifty laptop) without everyone who responded and helped when I asked begged this past spring. I eagerly await the point when it is claimed that I have jumped the shark.

There’s a new e-mail to reach me. The old one still works, but I am planning to phase it out. The new address is: PittBlather– at — gmail.com

I also have a couple hundred gmail invitations, so if anyone wants one shoot me an e-mail and I’ll send you an invite.

Comments are open, and I hope not to have to worry about moderation or any registration. The only reason that will happen is if the spam kicks up or people abuse the open system.